


Popping About

by Kimmzie



Category: Broadchurch, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Crossover, Dimension Cannon, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-05-13 11:12:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,829
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5705575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimmzie/pseuds/Kimmzie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose Tyler is testing the dimension cannon and ends up in Broadchurch. She helps a familiar face, but the man is different. Who is Alec Hardy? Will she ever find the Doctor? Rose/Hardy Rose/Doctor</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is the intro and to see if do this part. Didn't go so bad :) Read and Enjoy!  
> Disclaimer: I own neither-   
> (This intro is a few months old. I have about three additional chapters hanging around)

Popping About  
By Kimmzie

Rose Tyler popped into the new world. Correction, Rose Tyler was propelled into the new world. She was hurtled across the damp pavement which she met with a fast sprint. The Torchwood agent tried to stop, but her toes were squished to the front of her shoes, and she waved her arms trying to find her balance alas her arse not so gracefully met the pavement. She rubbed her head and looked back. How had she not left a trail of fire in her wake? 

The R&D guys said, “That was improbable.” She’d seen a lot of things with the Doctor and on these cannon field tests. Nothing could surprise her. Who said never say never?

Her jacket was warm around her, she touched the purple leather and she jerked her hand away, it was very hot to the touch. Her TARDIS key was glowing but remained cool. “Well, that’s something new.” She checked her locating device and shook her head. “Not the target yet.” She took the key into her grasp. 

As nonchalantly as possible, Rose stood up and wiped off her black trousers. She was currently standing in the middle of a main street, so she decided to move over to the side. It was night and the town seemed to be a ghost town. But best not press her luck. What little luck she had. She let down her hair and sighed, her muscles complained and her head was pounding and fuzzy. 

This was worse than the time she tried to drink Jack under the table. They had made it to four and a half intergalactic gang busters… She remembered the Doctor smiling down at her with twinkling blue eyes. She did not miss the daggers he threw towards Jack. At that point she could only wobble and look up at him with a lopsided grin. The Doctor had grabbed both glasses from the pair’s hands and had downed the last of both their drinks proclaiming a tie. She remembered the protective armor of his jacket covering her all the way back to the TARDIS. Jack had been exiled for a few days. 

The cannon and gps device started to beep as it recalibrated. She was in Broadchurch, Scotland and couldn’t leave until around noon the next day. It was pre-dawn local time. She didn’t mind the salt air that was drifting in on the breeze. She decided to stretch her legs. 

Rose turned her head as there was a groan and thud- A man in a dark coat was leaning against a hotel door.

“You alright mate? Have too much to drink?” That line came with way too much deja vous attached. 

“Something like that. Can you help me with the door?” His Scottish burr was hard to understand because everything was uttered through clenched teeth.

The voice was familiar and made her legs uneasy. She tried to get a closer look at his face. 

“Whatcha doin just standin’ there? It’s freezing out here,” the man said with more urgency. 

“Just a mo.” She hurried over to him. 

She didn’t see his face due to the darkness and most of it was covered by a beard and floppy hair. She took on some of his weight with no protest and turned his key easily. 

He coughed and started to drag his feet as they entered the hallway.

“Blimey mate, how much have you had?”

He pointed to a door down the hall and clung to her harder. Rose dragged him to the room. He then, collapsed onto the bed and grunted as soon as they entered. Her mouth turned into an O shape. Was he?

“Doctor?”

“No Doctors,” he groaned.

He went limp and his eyes rolled back into his head. That face was so familiar down to the freckles. 

Rose checked his breathing and moved him into a better position for his airway. His carotid pulse was not very strong. It was erratic and there was only one heartbeat. He was coming back into consciousness.

“Oi, do you have a heart condition? Any medicine?”

“Bathroom…” he lost consciousness again.

“Well, you can’t take those now.” She went to the side table looking for a phone. “Yes, please call an ambulance. My friend needs to go to hospital.” The female voice at the other end seemed quite alarmed. Good. They’ll get here faster.

She checked for his pulse again. Yup still there. But, very erratic. She fingered the syringe of adrenaline that lined the med kit in her jacket. She padded his pockets for his wallet and looked for his id and raided the bathroom for any medication. She frowned at the medication bottle. He had a serious heart problem. 

“Not long now,” she said quietly. As he made a guttural noise of pain, it made her insides clench sympathetically. “D.I Alec Hardy and definitely human.” She felt guilty for the anger that rose in the stomach at the false hope at hearing that voice and seeing that face. It wasn’t this Alec’s fault. Another wheeze and groan as he tried to move. She tried to stroke back his hair and still him. 

“Woah, anytime now.”

Right on time, the paramedics arrived with a stretcher and their bags. Rose gave her “credentials” and medical assessment and soon found herself riding in the back of an ambulance. The next few hours were a blur of sterile rooms, awkward medical questions, more awkward personal questions, and one trashy magazine.

Rose was pretending to be engrossed in her trashy magazine as the sun was peaking in through the window. She had perused it cover to cover about five and a half times. Her left hand had found its way into Alec Hardy’s right hand during the night. She remembers him cutting the blood off to her arm before the sedation had kicked in. Now, it lay peacefully, even though it was numb.

She looked up as she suddenly felt pressure on her hand. Alec’s eyes were fluttering open. She quickly jerked her hand away.

“Wha’”

“Easy now,” Rose said calmly. “You had a bad attack, you had to go to the hospital.”

“No, no. I said no Doctors…” 

“Well, they saved your life. Can’t take your medicine when you’re out cold, mate.” Rose fired back. 

“You don’t understand.” He glared at her. “Who are you anyway?”

“The hospital and hotel thinks I’m your “friend.” Make that as you will. I’m just passing through.”

“That’s not an answer.”

Rose slumped her shoulders and then got out her id badge. “Rose Tyler of the Torchwood Institute, Research and Development.” The badge was as generic as possible and had a little physic paper to help when she jumped. Alec raised an eyebrow. 

“Never heard of it,” he said. 

“Hmm,” Rose took back her badge and shrugged. “The doctors want to keep you for a while.”

“Not possible,” Alec interrupted and started to take the chords off his chest. When he went for the IV Rose grabbed his arms. 

“Oi, do you want to go squirting everywhere? Fine, you want to leave. Which is mad. At least let me help. I don’t know why I’m doing this.” He quit fighting her and relaxed. She took the tubes out of his arms and silenced the alarms. 

“Here’s your documents and scripts. Good Luck Mr. Hardy.” Rose left the magazine that had Danny’s face plastered on it. 

“Thank you, Ms. Tyler.”

“Rose, just Rose. Hurry up. I’ll try and distract some of your doctors. Just be careful.” She worried her lip and her hazel eyes looked as if they were going to say something else, but she was gone in a swirl of curtain. 

Rose was very good at putting up a distraction when needed. There were tubes and gauze and other bits spread out like confetti. “Sorry, so sorry. The floor was just so slippery. You really should leave a sign or something. No let me help… No?” She backed away in surrender. She smiled when she saw a dark jacket make a swift exit.


	2. Why this face?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rose is stuck. Maybe she'll find someone to grab her by the hand and run with.

Popping About  
Kimmzie  
Rose sat on a bench which was on a high cliff that overlooked the ocean. Her head hung low and the light casted a long shadow. She wasn’t paying attention to the sea grass that was playfully swaying at her knees. The fresh salty air was becoming a nuisance; her throat was raspy and scratchy. Wasn’t that supposed to be a remedy? The smell of salt water, and low tide made her sick now. 

She rolled back the sleeve of her jacket and looked at the dead dimension cannon. She should be home now. Her finger tapped the screen. There were no readings; not even a blip. It was tea time and her brother Tony would be expecting her.

She had tried EVERYTHING: all her fancy tools hidden away in her jacket, a rock, a pointy stick, a wall. She had jumped on it, and she had given it a smashing pep-talk. After that, her inner Jackie Tyler had come out. Alas, she was trapped. She slouched lower. You can’t yell at the world to change it. Sometimes, things go out with a whimper not a shout.  
She didn’t hear the heavy footfalls coming up the path, nor the creak of the bench as it shifted. She was lost in her own world. “Rose Tyler, I give one rule. Don’t wander off. Now, here I find you, and you are a whole Universe away… Lost?” The new-comer raised a brow. 

Now she had really gone mental. She didn’t even dare look up.

“Also beating and banging up innocent pieces of technology, way beyond your...” The strong voice tapered off. Calloused hands gently took her cheek and led her eyes to look into familiar ancient, icy depths. 

“D’c’tor?”

His voice became softer and his harsh accent disappeared a bit. “My TARDIS fell through that hole you punched into this Universe. I’m suspecting that was you trying to get out. Had to separate the Poor Girl in a dimensional-pocket-bubble to keep her power reserves up.” 

She was shell-shocked, dumbstruck. Her eyes were puffy and glassy with tears still streaming down her windblown face. Not quite the reunion she had expected. “What are you doing here, Rose Tyler?” His hands wiped both her cheeks and he smiled. Her heart couldn’t break because it was frozen. She didn’t want to breath, move, or do anything… just in case he might disappear again.

A memory of the last time she had seen that smile ghosted over the man in front of her. Her heart thawed and started beating when it flashed the new face which she had grown accustomed to.  
She remembered that he couldn’t say fantastic at first. The words tripped and tumbled off his tongue awkwardly against his new teeth. “L’looking for you… Well you! But not… you’re not supposed to be here.”

“Nope. Neither are you. You’re time-line is scattered all about. I don’t even notice that sort of thing, usually. Like background noise, it is. Much like those white noise machines humans have so they don’t have to listen to noise.” He shrugged. “But here you are, Rose Tyler. You are loud and flashing bright. A neon sign on a dark street burning away the dark.”

“Hmm? Nothin- Oh, I don’t know a little more fancy or posh?”

“We just left Las Vegas Pt. 2.” 

She nodded. The streets on the planet were lit in neon even at midnight. It was one of the only times she had seen her first Doctor in sunglasses. “You are sleeping off a hangover at Jackie’s… Jack is… well, I put him somewhere. You were always worth a drink or two. I’m not sure how the Captain got three barrels, or those two bar backs” She smiled a bit. He took her wrist in his hands, the leather making a familiar cracking sound. “I can’t allow you to continue ripping big holes in the Universe. Why are you looking for me?” 

“How much can you know? I don’t want to cross any temporal nexuses, fixed points, or something like that.”

“Rose, you are putting fractures in the fabric of reality… I’m not sure if I can say there is too much or too little information at this point. This shouldn’t be possible.” The Doctor frowned at the dead piece of technology. 

“Yeah, tell me about it. That thing packs a wallop when it works. I’m waiting to track fire behind me after a jump one of these days.”

“Where did you even get your hands on something like this? No wait, never mind that now.” He took out his screwdriver and started scanning it. The whirring noise of the instrument sounded distorted. 

“Well, it’s caput. You blew a few circuits. I think I can patch it up maybe get you and me out of here with a little more precision.”

“Really?”

“Really. I am quite good with the jiggery pokery. We need to seal this hole before something else falls through. Now, do you have anywhere you’re staying this might take some time?”

“Says the Lord of Time and Space.” Rose laughed when he gave her a phony hurt look.

“This is an alternate dimension. It would be easier if the Time Lords were still around. It seems like you’ve been doing quite fine on your own.” The pain on Rose’s face was real. “No tears. Not now. 

What is all this about?”

“The stars are going out and the darkness is coming. The dimensional cannon shouldn’t work but it does. We were separated. You said that trying to break the walls down would make two Universes collapse.”

“So?”

Rose’s tears ended in a bitter laugh. 

“I just haven’t found a way back to you yet,” he said resolutely. 

“You burnt up a star to say goodbye.”

“You’ve ripped a hole in the Universe to say hello, Rose. I think you’ve won this one. It’s the pot calling the kettle black at this point. Tit for tat. Actually, it is quite impressive.”

“I am quite fantastic.”

“I only take the best. You are fantastic.” She smiled when the words rolled seamlessly off his tongue. 

Rose had a sinking feeling as he pulled her stiff body off the bench. She had already extended her stay at the Inn. How was she going to explain that face? Had he seen that face before? The questions and explanations of Inspector Hardy got caught up on her tongue. “D'do... Oh, I want chips. Do you feel like getting some?”

“Are you paying?” 

“Yeah, it’s on me. You're usually a cheap date. ” She fell back in step with him and grabbed his hand. Oh, She had been waiting for this. It was brilliant, molto-bene, brilliant even. She grinned and got ready to run again. This was going to be fun...

She stopped laughing as they entered the building, and she saw the Inspector on TV with that family.   
The Doctor glanced at the screen and looked away with disinterest. “Why do you look like you’ve seen a ghost?”

“Because… That face.”

“Hmmm. Do you mean the tired Inspector in the tie? He doesn’t look too good. What about that face?”

“It’s not familiar?” Rose asked, quietly.

“Nope. Why?”

She shifted uncomfortably. “Well, you’ll get used to it at some point. Because you change. You actually think it’s quite foxy.” The Doctor didn’t reply. She could see his mind racing with ideas. “You’re sad that you’re not ginger.” She filled the silence with a laugh.

“Ah, so I change.”

“Yup.” 

“You stay?”

“Of course, it takes a bit to get used to. But, you’re still you. I don’t think that man on the tele is you. He’s different. So different. But he has your eyes and the same face. He even has that marking on your back…”

“How would you even know that?” 

“You're back. That is what grabs you... You ask a question about that? You don’t care that someone is running around looking like you?”

“Could be worse. I could have no head, two heads. The whole process is quite dodgy.” She was starting to turn red under his gaze.

“It's not like I'm looking at stranger's backs. He has nothing on his back or behind him. He’s staying at the Travelers. I was listening to his lungs. I had to take him to the hospital for a heart condition. One heart. He only has one heart.”

“Well, I have two. I don’t think he is a Time Lord or me… We’ll see.”

“You, you are way too calm about this.”

“All of time and space, Rose. The Universe is big and wide, but sometimes, dimensions can run together. It can be a lot smaller and cramped than I would prefer at times. Sometimes, I run into myself or another familiar face.” He grinned at her. “Keep calm, Rose. One problem at a time. Should I get vinegar?”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not really sure about the direction this one should take. I got like two! Sigh. Puts up sign "Beta needed"


End file.
